George Grant: Redefining Canada

George Grant (1918-1988) was the grandson of men who shaped Queen’s University and Upper Canada College (UCC), the son of one of UCC’s most famous principals, the nephew of Vincent Massey, Canada’s first native-born Governor General. Yet he did not become a prime minister of Canada as his mother had hoped. Instead, deeply affected by the violence of the Second World War, he became one of Canada’s most original political and religious thinkers. His book Lament for a Nation led some to call him a Red Tory and name him as the dominant intellectual force behind the Canadian nationalist movement of the 1970s. George Grant saw both himself and the future of his country in a different light. A life-long pacifist who argued against Canada accepting nuclear missiles in the 1960s, Grant reminds us why such weapons need to be resisted now and evermore and what kinds of strength we need to keep Canada alive and lively in the face of the globalisation of everything, including terrorism. George Grant loved Canada. Mightily. But Canada he loved is more than a place - it is also a state of mind. For Grant, a large part of being a Canadian resides in an ability to remember lovingly things that other North Americans have forgotten or never known and to resist their destruction. With energy, affection, and insight, T F Rigelhof gives us George Grant: the public thinker who challenged conventional attitudes towards Quebec, national politics, justice, and the American empire; the brilliant teacher at McMaster and Dalhousie who sought to create new ways of studying the great thinkers who shaped us; and, the private man who could be both eminently loveable and infuriating.